WILD TURKEY HUNTING. 13 
and nothing but stratagem, and an intimate knowledge 
of the habits of the bird by the hunter, will command 
success. We once knew an Indian, celebrated for all 
wood craft, who made a comfortable living by supplying 
a frontier town with game. Often did he greet the vil- 
lagers with loads of venison, with grouse, with bear, but 
seldom, indeed, did he offer the esteemed turkey for 
sale. Upon being reproached for his seeming incapacity 
to kill the turkey, by those who desired the bird, he de- 
fended himself as follows : 
‘“Me meet moose—he stop to eat, me shoot him. 
Me meet bear—he climb a tree, no see Indian, me shoot 
him. Me meet deer—he look up—say may be Indian, 
may be stump—and me shoot him. Me see turkey great 
way off—he look up and say, Indian coming sure—me 
no shoot turkey, he cunning too much.” 
The turkey is also very tenacious of life, and will 
often escape though wounded in a manner that would 
seem to defy the power of locomotion. A rifle ball has 
been driven through and through the body of a turkey, 
and yet it has run with speed for miles. Some hunters 
have been fortunate in possessing dogs that have, with- 
out any instruction, been good turkey hunters. These 
dogs follow the scent, lead the hunter up to the haunts 
of the bird, lie quiet until a shot is had, and then follow 
the game if only wounded, until it is exhausted, and 
thus secure a prize to the hunter, that would otherwise 
have been lost. This manner of hunting the turkey, 
